We actually touched on the subject of digital sampling a few posts ago, but for those of you that missed it, check it out here.
I grew up listening to awesome hair bands and new wave in the 80's, tranisitioning to alt rock and gansta rap of the 90's. One guilty pleasure I still share with my sometime collaborator is an affinity, well maybe not affinity, but likened pleasure towards new wave bands. Depeche Mode and Erasure were tops, but Pet Shop Boys, Information Society and others were equally nice.
Gangsta rap was right around the corner, and one typical attribute for rap songs that time were to have long drawn out introductions, along with small interludes between tracks on the CD. One stand out was Warren G's "Regulators". I don't know how many times we quoted, "You gotta be handy with the steel, you know what I mean? Earn your keep."
Now what does new wave and gansta rap have in common? Not a whole lot, except for...
Sampling. Yes, that's right. A veritable splendor of specimens to further enhance and contrive the backbone of a song. Growing up, I heard it used aplenty in my new wave music, but didn't think much of it; I was a kid. As my peers began to listen to rap, so did I. I remember those early songs with the long intros, but also hearing a quote from a movie or commercial or something just vaguely familiar. MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" was a sample ofRick
James' (of "Cocaine's a hell of a drug" fame) "Superfreak". Many argue that even further back, "Werewolves of London" was ripped off for "Sweet Home Alabama". I wouldn't know. I do know that Kid Rock probably ripped both off for his "All Summer Long".
So what does this mean? Well for starters, creativity isn't quite what it used to be. It's not like to are paying homage to your inspiration; perhaps you're taking their work and saying "Oh, let me change a few words and then it'll be a new song...Yeah!". Not trying to be flippant, but how far off is that?
Now in all fairness, many rappers/DJs/artists use the turntable in an artform called mixing. One memorable line from a long forgotten rap song is "Two turntables and a microphone". There's something to be said about using a fifteen-second hook and rhyming on the fly. Live and in front of an audience. Not just recording and dubbed. Different, but still doesn't counter my prior argument.
In the end, artists are tired of losing revenue to sampling. Yes, there are a TON of hooks out there, but the artists themselves don't want to lose that revenue because they couldn't come up with a decent hook. Most recently, Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak lacked sampling. A big deal in today's hip hop world. Young Jeezy and T.I. both used four or less samples in their most recent albums. SPIN Magazine wrote a great article about this and can be viewed here.
I think in the end, sampling won't die. And it shouldn't. But artists shouldn't be afraid to create something new. Music is infintismimally limited; it isn't. And as such, artists shouldn't be either. You don't need to pull out a somewhat popular song to make your mediocre song sound better. But what do I know? I sample some poor schmo's quote at the end of each of my posts.
At least I give credit, if nothing else.
Your closing sample: Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. - Steven Jobs
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